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Tuesday, December 09, 2008

Muslim Virtual World Launched

A trial version of Muxlim Pal, an online virtual world aimed at Muslims, has been rolled out.

It’s described as:

Muxlim Pal is the first Muslim virtual world providing a new kind of family friendly social online environment for your entertainment.

The values of the site include an absence of sexual and profane material, references to violence, drugs, and so on, not only out of respect for Muslim values, but also to make the site more family-friendly.

The community guidelines say that “a wide variety of non-religious and religious content including discussions, polls, videos, images, files, audios, debates, praise or constructive criticism are welcome.” and that “everyone is welcome to express their faith and lifestyle in their own way. We only ask that you express yourself with sensitivity and respect towards others and the community.”

The Muxlim Pal folks say:

The community believes that a welcoming attitude and transparent communication creates better understanding between people.

Can’t argue with that. The Muxlim Blog has more information. If anyone wants to check out the localization and cultural aspects of Muxlim Pal by signing up, then we’d love to hear your comments.

Tuesday, December 02, 2008

PayPal in Trouble for Mixing Up Vikings with Australia

We mentioned PayPal before. More trouble this time, as the family of the Aboriginal inventor and writer, David Unaipon, pictured on an Australian $50 note, have called on PayPal to pull down its “degrading” and “disrespectful” ads that use a doctored picture of the man. 

It seems that PayPal launched an campaign in Australia, using ads that have images of the $10, $20, $50 and $100 notes with motorcycle police helmets added on the characters depicted to suggest PayPal has heightened security for its users.

The Sydney Morning Herald tells us:

Well-known Aboriginal activist Allan Campbell and his brother John, great-nephews of David Unaipon, who is pictured on the $50 note, were shocked to learn their uncle’s image had been used in that way.

and

“It is very disrespectful because for a start no Aboriginal people have a helmet - we’re not bikies and we’re not Vikings,” said Allan, 61, from Murray Bridge in South Australia.

In defense, PayPal say it’s perfectly legal. But I agree with TechCrunch - that’s missing the point.

Just because it’s legal in a country doesn’t mean it won’t be be culturally offensive. Or right.

Monday, December 01, 2008

Accents

No, not diacritics. How people sound. I’ve just read Jakob Nielsen’s latest alert American English vs. British English for Web Content. There’s a section called “Spoken English.”

This includes the remarkable observation about “Irish” being a regional accent of the United Kingdom that should be avoided because, like Scots, Welsh, and Northern English, it’s “hard for foreigners to understand.” As for “Midwestern or Northeastern American accents” having “less of an upper-crust connotation,” well, obviously Jakob has no consideration for the impact such a comment can have on the price of real estate in New England.

Oddly enough, some of those very accents appear to be very reassuring in some cases, according to some research, and if you’re in the financial services industry, Scottish accents in particular seem to do the trick.

Of course, not having an accent myself, I’m no expert ...

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Global Product Naming

Listen up, people. Global Product Naming 101.

Firstly, coming up with something called “Sweet Lord” chocolate Jesuses is not universally acceptable. In fact, tasteless (the name, not the chocolate presumably) to some.

Secondly, “Chinese Democracy” is not a great name if you’re trying to shift units of your latest album in a big market in Asia (I shall reserve comment about the sensitivities of any culture that expresses a fondness for Kenny G.).

By the way, I discovered the real reason for the name “Jesus Phone” today in Ireland - 569 Euros (735 US dollars) for an iPhone.

Best steer clear of religion and politics, I think (being Irish, I should know)

Saturday, November 08, 2008

South Asia Languages Resource

South Asian languages your thing? Then check out the Digital Dictionaries of South Asia Project.

About:

The Digital Dictionaries of South Asia Project is a collaborative effort to widen access to South Asian Language Dictionaries. Established dictionaries for each of the twenty-six modern literary languages of South Asia will be mounted on the web for free and open access.

Hat tip: Daniela.

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Kraftwerk: No Localization Needed

I went to see Kraftwerk perform in Dublin a few days ago. A brilliant event. Four middle-aged German guys with Sony VAIO laptops making the most amazing music, accompanied by a fantastic video show. Perfect. However, I doubt that any other modern band could do what Kraftwerk do so well, moving seamlessly across borders with the same show.

Now if you’ve ever been to a rock concert in Ireland, you’ll know the visiting band usually attempts some form of cultural customization, whether its “Hello, Dublin”, “Ireland, You’re Great” banter, the waving of tricolors, dancing of hokey Irish gigs, sometimes unfortunate references to the North of Ireland/Northern Ireland, sequed performances into “Danny Boy”, and a bunch of other stuff that would make Darby O’Gill and the Little People look like the paragon of cultural sophistication.

Not Kraftwerk. They came on, played for nearly two hours. And left. Passed not one comment. Did “Tour de France” include images of Irish cyclists Seán Kelly or Stephen Roche? Was there an explicit campaign comment made about Sellafield (British nuclear plant polluting the Irish Sea) during “Radioactivity”? No. Nothing. Were the robots painted green? Come on.

Ralf Hütter (and the Kling-Klang technology) “sang” songs in English and German. They showed English, German, Japanese and French language on screen, and a host of global images the same way they would in Asia, Europe, or America. And the lack of “a bit of Irish” detracted not in in the least from the power of their sound and vision. In fact, it was better without it.

And that’s the way it should be. Perhaps it’s the nature of the Kraftwerk sound and image to be culturally agnostic (’though nobody is in any doubt that they’re German), but I can’t help feeling that when you’ve such a brilliant presence and offering that works worldwide, then leave it alone - whatever the rest of them do.

Saturday, July 05, 2008

In the Name of the Fada

You might remember my griping about the Polish support folks in CWT not being able to handle the apostophe yet alone the accent on the capital “O” in my name. Now some Irish people have similar problems with diacritics (extended characters).

If you have an Irish name, say “Liam Ó Maonlaí”, then you might expect U.S. authorities (whatever about the population) to mangle your name thus:

* Liam OMaonlai (IRS/DMV: Don’t do accents, apostrophes, or spaces)
* Liam O’Maonlai (Department of State: Don’t do accents).
* Liam O. Maonlai (telephone providers, insurance, etc, immediately giving you a middle initial. I always liked to insist on a trailing “VI” everytime they did this to me).

The Social Security people get it right: Liam Ó Maonlaí (ironically, the SSN itself tracks you anyway).

But now, the Irish themselves are at it. And worse, they’re managing to combine apostrophes with the accent on the “O” (known as a fada or síneadh fada in Irish):  Liam Ó’Maonlaí

(photo taken in The Coombe, Dublin, 25-June).

So, the next time you hear an Irish person knocking how Americans say “Ma-Hone-E” instead of “Mah-On-E” for “Mahony”, ask them to spell the name of the former lead singer of the Hot House Flowers.

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Ireland's Fowl Eurovision Entry Doesn't Translate Well In Serbia

Non-European readers may not be familiar with the Eurovision Song Contest (lucky them). It’s a song contest between “European” countries held annually. It’s been going for years, a source of national pride as well as fairly duff music, and Ireland has won the thing loads of times. ABBA once won the contest for Sweden with a song about a train station in London, and Céline Dion once won it for Switzerland. It’s a big TV thing in Europe. This year the contest is being held in Belgrade, Serbia.

However, last night’s semi-final saw this year’s Irish entry - “Irelande Douze Pointe” performed by a stuffed turkey called Dustin - not only eliminated but actually booed by the audience. Of course, there was uproar in Ireland. Seems the smug Irish putting forward of a “joke entry” didn’t translate too well in a country that had been waiting years to hold this contest and saw it as a showcase for their country to the rest of the world. The hunt for the guilty has begun. 

In all, a very serious misjudgment by one of the world’s most globalized countries and a cultural lesson that humor doesn’t travel well and the perception of events varies by time and location.

It was a turkey of a song (http://youtube.com/watch?v=NYyxhWEHO3w) that really did deserve a good stuffing.

And I thought that Riverdance stuff was embarrassing.

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

That Faulty Localization Is a Real Killer: Cell Phones

I recall from my days of working on the Turkish localization of Microsoft Word 6.0 for Windows the joys of dealing with the famous Turkish dotted i character. Now comes a related tale of what some people are calling “faulty localization” of Turkish cell phones - one with deadly results.

Read on (note: some colorful non-inflight movie language involved)....

A Cellphone’s Missing Dot Kills Two People, Puts Three More in Jail

The local press say:

The local press has pointed out that the faulty localization of cellphones in Turkey is causing “serious problems” when it comes to certain “delicate words” in Turkish, and they are calling to enhance localization of technology to avoid these mistakes.

Actually, I’d put this down more as an internationalization problem, than one of localization. Either way, it might have been a lot more sensible to have logged a bug against the cell phone manufacturer.

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Hazaar Fundas of Indian-English

Just back from India, where I picked up a wonderful, witty, and insightful book on the subject of Indian-English called “Entry From Backside Only: Hazaar Fundas of Indian-English” by B.K. John.

I believe the book was only published in India and Singapore originally, but it’s well worth getting your hands on a copy through Amazon.com or whatever. It really blows away the tiresome “Hinglish” anecdotes that are constantly recycled at the bar, and explores social, cultural, and political strands that combine to create this hybrid form of the English language.

As far back as 1882, there was an attempt to create an Indian-English dictionary (Hobson-Jobson by Yule and Burnell), which noted:

The words which we have to do taking the the most extensive view of the field are in face organic remains deposited under the various currents of external influence that have washed the shores of India during twenty centuries and more.

Written in a highly entertaining style too.

Monday, March 03, 2008

Plaxo Globalization

Interesting posting by Regina Bustamente of Plaxo on customizing Pulse for different markets.

She writes:

Last week we targeted our growing number of users in India and made it possible for them to import their Indiatimes or Rediff mail address books into Pulse. And we are also offering some beautiful eCards celebrating the popular Holi festival or Festival of Colors.

It’s really great to see Indian market concerns up there in the social networking space!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Sorry, We Don't Do Your Name

I tried to book a flight using Carlson Wagonlit’s travel service today without success. I was attempting to book an Aer Lingus flight from Dublin to San Francisco.

Bizarrely, I was told by CWT support in Poland that they had now removed the apostrophe from my name because it was causing “synchronization” problems on their system.  Not from my user name, from my name. Imagine deploying a system in Ireland that can’t deal with names starting with O’.

Maybe they could use this error message in future:

I wouldn’t mind, but I only use O’Broin in the first place for the convenience of other people. It should be Ó Broin.

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